


Sick Days

by avrelia



Series: The World of Infinite Hope - canon compliant stories [14]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fall Maiko Week 2019, Maiko fluff week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 06:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20990696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: Mai got sick and stays home.





	Sick Days

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Maiko Fluff week 2019
> 
> Day 6, prompt: domestic
> 
> I wanted Zuko to cook something, but things started happening.

Zuko wanted to surprise Mai – they hadn't seen each other for a couple of weeks during which he had to go and have polite but useless talks with the Earth King. And now he thought he’d drop by the flower shop and say hi and chat a little. 

However, at the door he was met with Mura. Normally cheerful and welcoming, she looked like that a thunderstorm cloud. If he wasn’t sure she was a non-bender he would be afraid she’d start throwing lightnings. 

“Please, Zuko, go home, Mai is ill.” She told him, too worried and upset to bother with the proper address.

“What happened? Why can’t I see her?” 

“She caught blueberry pox from Tom Tom. And Tom Tom got from someone of his friends. He got it easy, most kids do, but for a grown girl it’s pretty bad. She can’t see you now.”

“But I am not afraid… I’d like to be close...”

“Have you had it, as a child?”

“I am not sure. I don’t really remember any illnesses...”

“Then I can’t risk it, fire lord. It’s bad for a grown girl, but it’s twice as bad for a grown man. Come back… maybe in a week. Better in two.”

“ok. Can I write her a message?”

“Sure. But I won’t allow her to answer.”

“It’s fine, as long as you write to me yourself about her… Please?”

“I’ll write to you.” And she suddenly hugged him with unexpected might, the thunderstorm gone. 

*** 

The next two weeks passed in a haze. Zuko read everything he could about blueberry pox, talked to the court physician and sent letters to his mother. Both seemed quite confident that it was a kind of disease that should run its course as it happened, and only watched out for possible complications. Both believed that both Zuko and Azula had it, one summer on Ember Island, but demanded not to risk himself, anyway. He debated internally whether to ask Katara for help. While Katara was generally the answer to most serious problems, in this case it didn’t seem right – if everything went right Mai would be fine by the time Katara would have been able to arrive, so there was no reason to bother her. He only had to be patient. Which was really not easy. He tried to busy himself with work, but his head was so full of worries that he could hardly understand what he was doing, he kept snapping at people for no good reason and had to reread every document three times to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He even went to the Fire Sages Temple for meditation. They were delighted and smug about it, and maybe mediation did help a little to keep patience. But mostly he calmed himself with firebending basics and writing letters to Mai. 

Zuko was used to live his life in front of the court, servants, guards, his tiny warship crew. In fact, he found the anonymity of his life in Earth Kingdom much more uncomfortable and disturbing – back then. But now, seeing as his bad mood was being discussed in every corner of the palace, the temple, possibly on the streets, he wished for a bit of anonymity.

Everyday he sent a courier to Mai’s home – with a letter and fresh pastries. Everyday the courier returned full of pastries and a reply – polite and formal from Mai’s mother, and much less formal from Mai’s aunt. Aunt Mura informed him that they couldn’t possibly eat all the pastries, so they are feeding the courier, all their customers and most of the neighbors. Mai didn’t answer.

Then, after a week, he finally got a letter from Mai. “Thanks for your letters. They are so much better than I remember. Love, Mai.”

Zuko smirked. Mai had never yet missed a chance to include a barb about him writing letters to her. And possibly never would. But that was fine, as long as she wrote to him in her lovely dry style and signed them “love, Mai.”

He immediately wrote a reply and sent the courier back, only to get a reply from Aunt Mura. “If you send this courier back today, I’ll take him hostage so he could have some respite. Use messenger hawks. Mai is sleeping, anyway.”

Next week, a messenger hawk flew back and forth with letters. And the courier was still sent with pastries. And he probably still ate most of it himself. Mai’s letters were just as acerbic yet sweet and mostly talked about being bored, sleepy and itchy, and about Tom Tom’s adventures with the messenger hawk. It seemed Tom Tom befriended the bird and tried to teach it to talk in order to send “voice messages”. Tom Tom was the one who picked up the blueberry pox first, but being the right age for it, was already up and running.

Finally, the letter came with the invitation to visit. The same afternoon Zuko was there. Aunt Mura startled him by telling him that Mai waits for him in bed. 

Seeing his surprise, she added, “Don’t get any ideas, young man! She is too weak to get up yet.” and smiling, pushed him in the back a little. “She is just not dangerous anymore.”

Zuko grumbled under his breath that he didn’t know the time when Mai wasn’t dangerous and got another smile from Aunt Mura.

He flew up the stairs to Mai’s room and was taken aback hearing loud laughter coming from there. He knocked, heard “come in!” said by familiar cheerful voice and entered to see Ty Lee sitting in the chair by the desk. He looked around: Suki waved to him from the windowsill. Finally, he found Mai, lying in her bed by the wall. Mai usually was pale, but now her skin looked sallow and covered with small blue pustules similar indeed to blueberry, giving the name to the illness. 

He blinked. “Hi, Mai.”

“Hello, Zuko,” her smile was sweet and lightly mocking. What did she see in his face?  
“How are you feeling?” 

Better than before. That’s pretty much all I can say. 

“How’s Tom Tom?” 

“Not successful with his voice messaging yet. Otherwise – much better than I am. Why didn’t I manage to have this thing in the right age, like all the normal people?”

“Because you were always alone?” Ty Lee said.

Mai rolled her eyes.

“Did you have it?” Zuko asked Ty Lee and Suki.

“I have six sisters. I had everything. Meaning diseases, of course.”

“Me too. Once one person got anything on our island, everybody had it, too. Sometimes, I think, our elders invited sick people over for that exact purpose.” Suki shrugged. 

I was surprised to learn that that you with Azula had it. 

I think everyone was surprised when we got it, but the security on Ember Island was much more relaxed in general, and we were far away in line for the throne, so they weren’t as worried. But, yeah, it seems we got lucky to have then. 

Zuko looked around the room. It was small, especially compared to the rooms in the old mansion that he remembered so well. There was a large window with wide windowsill currently occupied by Suki, A dresser with mirror and a small stool, Writing desk and a chair where Ty Lee sat, Bookshelves with some books and scrolls, a chest of drawers with the Mai’s portrait with Tom Tom over it, a wardrobe and a bed. There wasn’t much free space left, so he sat on the floor by the door. 

The conversation continued with the contemplation of various diseases everyone had, and the news that Suki brought from Sokka and the rest of his friends. 

“You know,” she said at some point, “that voice messaging is not a bad idea. We finally will be able to send something to Toph and to whoever might be near her. I doubt one could teach a messenger hawk to talk, but I’ll talk to Sokka. Who knows, maybe he’ll come up with something?”

“He usually does,” laughed Zuko.

“And it’s usually too crazy to work.”

“He had several successes.” Suki mused. “But he’s the best at ‘half-ideas” - either he improves on someone else’s ideas, or someone else has to improve on his.”

Eventually Ty Lee and Suki started to say their goodbyes. Zuko also got up to leave.

“Stay for a little while” Mai asked him.

“Sure.”

When the girls left, Mai patted her bed. “You can come over here, if you want.” 

Zuko came close and gingerly sat on the edge of her bed. 

“Just don’t touch me. I am itching terribly, and can’t bear any touch.”

“Can I do anything to help?”

“No. I have a ghastly smelling ointment that helps with the itching, but I didn’t want to use it with the visitors here.”

“Do you think you can scare me away?” Sitting on the edge wasn’t very convenient, and Zuko found himself lying on the edge of Mai’s bed instead, facing her. 

“Of course not. But I’d rather gag alone, anyway.” Mai grimaced.

“When I dreamed to be in your bed, I had a rather different picture in my mind.”

“Real life is beyond your wildest dreams.”

“That’s very true.” He grinned and Mai answered him with a weak smile. “I loved your letters.”

“I had nothing much else to do...”

“Boredom is your explanation for everything.”

“Hmmm.” Mai thought for a while. “No, not at all. I can’t explain you whatsoever.”

He picked up a stand of her hair, being reasonably sure it is exempt from “no touch rule.” Not in the usual style, not a shiny curtain, they looked dull and greasy. He played with it, weaving it through his fingers back and forth. Mai watched him without saying anything. 

Time passed, shadows in the room grew longer. 

“I am falling asleep.” Mai said, and Zuko could indeed see that she needed sleep. To honest the quiet domesticity started to lull him, too, but he had to go.

“I’ll leave you to it, and your badly smelling ointment, then. Please tell me when I can visit again.” He got up.

“Of course.”

***

The next visit happened only more than a week after. Meanwhile, the letter exchange continued, with Mai’s letters becoming longer, filled with more Tom Tom adventures with various animals, and Mai’s random thoughts. Zuko answered by telling about his day, people he talked to, and the problems he had to deal with. Sometimes Mai answered with suggestions. One of them was worth trying out. He still sent pastries with the courier, but now, it seemed, neighbors and customers didn’t get any leftovers. 

Finally, he was invited over. 

He was met by beaming Mura. Zuko felt awkward at her enthusiasm, so he bowed and said “Hello, lady Mura!”

She rolled her eyes “Whom are you calling ‘lady’? It’s Auntie Mura for you, young punks!” and lead him into the living room. There, on the old divan, there were Mai with Tom Tom, looking at some book. Michi was seated in an armchair nearby reading a scroll with something like embroidery in her hands. She smiled and greeted him pleasantly, then continued with her work.

“Hello, Zuko!” Mai showed him a place to sit by her, and he immediately was there. 

He hugged Mai and looked at her – She was still paler than usual, but no blueberries, and almost no traces of them were visible. “How are you?”

“Fine. What no pastries today?”

Zuko looked at his hands. The were definitely no pastries anywhere in sight. How did he forget to bring them?

Mai noticed his consternation and smiled. “Don’t worry about them. We had more than enough over the past weeks. We’ll find something to eat.”

“I can cook for you! I can make noodles, and some other stuff, you know.”

“But will our cook let you into her kitchen?”

“You think she won’t?”

“She is very serious about her work.”

“I can ask very politely. And she won’t have to leave the kitchen, I’ll probably need her help finding stuff there.”

“Ok, let’s go. I want to see you cook, and might be she would, too.”

The cook, slight dried-looking woman didn’t look happy to let strangers in her kitchen, even if that stranger was her fire lord, but she didn’t say anything, just pursed her lips, clutched her hands and stood by the side. She didn’t look willing to yield any of her power over her tiny domain without a direct order, and he didn’t want to order her. He wanted to do something nice for them all...

“Mistress Ka, which pots can Zuko use?” Mai came to save him. 

The cook silently gave him the necessary equipment. “Which noodles do you intend to cook, Fire Lord?”

“Can you show me what you got? And I can choose whatever I can make them? My skills are pretty limited here, I am afraid.”

“Sure. And then I come to your palace and make some laws...” The cook grumbled.

Zuko wasn’t sure she meant it in full seriousness, but he tried to answer earnestly. “You are welcome to visit the palace. Governing the nation is more complicated than cooking, I am afraid, though I can’t imagine ever mastering any of them. If you really wish, you can read some drafts of laws and make a suggestion…”

The cook scoffed “May be I will”, but Zuko could see her relaxing a little bit.

After that, the process went much smoother. The cook mostly stayed vigilant over Zuko’s use of food and equipment, and Mai helped to find whatever he needed. He chose to make one recipe he felt confident about, and since it was one of the basic Fire nation recipes, all the ingredients could be found in most kitchens. 

After everything was done, he invited Mistress Ka to join them for lunch. 

She shrugged. “I guess I have to. I need to know whether you could be trusted with food.”

He and Mai set the table, and invited everyone over. Michi and Mura looked surprised to see their cook joining them but didn’t say anything.

At first the meal was awkward. Everyone glanced at each other and complimented his cooking politely. Mura, Auntie Mura, asked “where did you learn to cook?”

“I had a basic survival training as a child, like everybody else. Of course, I didn’t expect to actually need to cook, so I am afraid, it didn’t leave much trace then. But during our… time in Earth Kingdom, Uncle Iroh and I had to cook for ourselves, so I relearned. We couldn’t get all the spices and other stuff we were used to, and had to improvise a lot. Then… when I was teaching the Avatar firebending and we lived on Ember Island, we all took turns cooking our meals, and there I tried to make proper Fire Nation recipes.”

“Can you make fire flakes?” Tom Tom asked.

“No, I am afraid. Just rice, noodles, roasted meats and vegetables. Can’t bake any bread or make sweets, either.”

“Do you think I’ll need to learn to cook?” 

“I don’t know, but it can be a very useful skill.”

“You have to learn to clean the table after yourself first.” Mai added, looking at Tom Tom rather pointedly.

“Yes, absolutely. Cleaning the table comes first.” Zuko hurried to add. “It fact, we can start today.”

After that the conversation moved more - about food of different nations, and strange things people had to eat. Zuko shared some stories, Mai told how she learned to roast birds when traveling in Earth Kingdom. Auntie Mura shared some anecdotes only marginally related to food. 

After the meal was over Zuko with Tom Tom cleaned the table, and brought tea. The cook refused to leave the kitchen to have tea with the family, so Zuko brought a cup to her.

“You are okay, I guess. But don’t do it again. You have your own kitchen.”

“Thanks for bearing with me today, Mistress Ka.” 

He came back. There was only Mai sitting by the table. 

“Where is everyone?”

“Do you really want all of them here?”

“I guess, not.” He sat by her, and Mai gave him his cup. It was nice sitting here with her alone. Comfortable, almost domestic. “We need to do that more often - have tea together like this.” Mai leaned her head on his arm and didn’t say anything. They say together in cozy silence until Zuko noticed that Mai had fallen asleep. He laid her carefully on the divan, kissed her head, and quietly left.

**Author's Note:**

> I figured, if the Avatar Universe has mixed-up animals, they might have mixed -up diseases, too. So, blueberry pox is a combination of chicken pox and mumps and other similar diseases. 
> 
> also, there is an accidental reference to a Lenin's quote.


End file.
